Avoid This #1 Mistake When Promoting Your Online Teaching Business

Whether you’ve started your business already or not, you may be wondering, How do I promote this thing?

  1. Do I just start asking people to sign up for my program or classes?
  2. Do I just start paying for ads to get people to sign up?

No, please don’t do either of these things!

We need to build relationships with people before we ask them to pay us for anything.

Let’s take a closer look at why.

Straight to the Sign Up Page? Huge mistake.


Why can’t we just send clients straight to our sign up page?

Well…you could…

  • but the chances of them signing up for classes with you would go down drastically.
  • And since, statistically, some insane number of website visitors leave and never return to a site ever again, if your visitors don’t leave a way to get in touch with them, you’ll never be able to follow up again with those customers.

So, just like you wouldn’t ask someone to marry you on a first date, you wouldn’t ask someone to pay when they’ve only just met you.

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We need to start building a relationship BEFORE asking them to pay for anything.

That way they will find out what wonderful people we are!

They will come to know, like, and trust us–and then they may even start asking you where they can sign up for your program or classes!

Either way, when you send someone who knows, likes, and trusts you to your sales page, they are far, far…far……..far more likely to sign up.

I want to say this loud and clear which is why I have devoted this whole page to this topic. 

Your online teaching business is based solely on trust.

Your Online Teaching Business Is Based Solely on Trust.


You need to help people…

  • who have never met you in person… 
  • who are wary of online marketers and scams…
  • who have 1000s of ads thrown at them every day…

…to grow to trust you.

The first step to building trust is going to be very casual.

That will likely be something like the following:

  • A simple conversation on social media
  • They like a post you shared
  • You like a post they shared
  • You are really helpful and answer a question they asked simply because.
  • You ask their opinion on something
  • They respond to a poll
  • They watch a video you filmed that helps them get a quick win

Afterward, you can take things to the next step.

You can invite them to your website or to get a super-helpful freebie you’ve created.

One of the best ways to start tackling this issue of trust, to start building a relationship, is to give something valuable away absolutely free.

In exchange for the freebie, you can ask for their email address or to DM you (which means you can DM them back, of course).

5 Ways to Build Trust with Your Clients or Students


Here are 5 things you could create and give away to your clients, parents, or students in order to continue building a relationship with them.

You’ll want to ask them for an email address or to DM you in order to receive any of these items. That way you can follow up with them.

  1. A regularly scheduled free group class – Focus on one simple and very specific phrase, topic, or strategy each week that will get your clients/students results. Invite everyone you meet to join you.
  2. Strategy Session – Meet with clients or students one-on-one to discuss their specific situation and strategies for accomplishing their goals.
  3. A short series of video lessons – You can create an email course where you send a video each day or week to your clients or students to get them results, or you can give them access to a series of videos all at once and let them binge watch.
  4. A PDF download. You could make a PDF checklist of the things your clients/students need to do in order to achieve their goals. 
  5. A free or discounted class. You could offer clients/students a coupon for a free or heavily discounted class.

Following Up with Clients or Students


Regardless of the freebie, you’ll want to tell them what is next.

You’ll want to follow up with them.

The price point of whatever course, program, or class you’re offering will affect how many steps you should provide before asking someone to pay for anything.

These steps your customer is taking to build trust in you are called Touch Points.

Each time a customer interacts with you in some way is a Touch Point.

The more expensive your product, the more touch points you’ll need.

At the end of your freebie, you may want to consider any or all of the following follow up strategies:

  1. Email Series – Send a series of emails to the client, parent, or student with helpful tips, strategies, and resources. You can follow a series of emails up with a series of sales emails where you tell them all about your program, classes, products, etc.
  2. Webinar – Invite them to show up live for a webinar where you teach something valuable to your audience. You can end your webinar by talking about your program, course, classes, product, etc.
  3. Strategy Session – Meet one-on-one with clients to discuss their particular situation. You can pitch your course, program, classes at the end of the strategy session.
  4. Direct Message – Check in with them to see how things are going. Send them helpful resources, tips, strategies.
  5. Sales – Provide a link to your sales page which provides details about how you can help them further to reach their goals.

If you follow these steps to build relationships with your clients, parents, students before asking for a sale, you will

  • Have a lot more people sign up
  • Make a lot more money

Resources to Help You Continue Making Forward Progress on Your Business


If you need more help building your meaningful and successful online teaching business, here are a couple of options for your next steps:

Need More Help? Join the Free Course


I’ve put together a free course that you might find helpful called How to Build a Meaningful & Successful Online Teaching Business.

Free Course - Start Your Own Online Teaching Business

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